


No Contest

by notadamsel37



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Canon Compliant, Domestic, F/M, Future Fic, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-11 00:11:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20536961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notadamsel37/pseuds/notadamsel37
Summary: When it came to the Elric Brothers, there was really no contest.





	No Contest

**Author's Note:**

> my sister was telling me that it always made her sad to think about ed and winry together after the series, because it meant that ed wouldn't have time for al anymore, and my immediate thought was OH HELL NO. so now you have this. enjoy. 
> 
> non-beta'd, we die like men.

Some people just didn’t understand. 

And Winry could see why they couldn’t. It wasn’t like her situation was anywhere near normal. She had grown up with two of the biggest alchemy prodigies around. Their childhood was never destined to be normal. If you could even call it a childhood — Edward and Alphonse had mastered alchemy enough to attempt human transmutation before they were even truly teenagers. She had designed, manufactured, and installed an entire automail arm and leg at the same age. The three of them were forced to grow up fast. 

And that didn’t even cover the fact that for them, all they had left was each other. A dead mother and a father who had seemingly walked out on them, an alchemy teacher they rarely mentioned, her and Granny never truly being able to call themselves the boys’ family — could anyone really blame them for being so reliant on each other? 

They leaned on each other. They relied on each other. When their mother died, they kept up the house they had all lived in. They went through their teacher’s training together (which, from the way they rarely spoke of it, and cringed whenever it was mentioned, was not to be taken lightly). They travelled constantly, to distant towns and villages together, on a quest to return to their original bodies. They fought together, against ordinary humans and against a being who harnessed the power of God. 

Ed gave up his right arm to snatch his younger brother back from Truth’s reaching arms, and Al willingly went back to his doorstep to give his older brother the chance to fight and save the entire country. 

Winry didn’t have any siblings, but she had known others who did. In school, in town, after she herself became a bit of a traveler. She had met plenty of people who tolerated their siblings, those who despised them, and those who loved them. But she had never met another pair of siblings who were as devoted to each other as the Elric brothers. 

So she could see why outsiders would find it hard to understand. 

She was walking through town shopping for groceries, taking a break from a particularly large automail order Mr. Garfiel had subcontracted. Lily was looking around, seeming to see everything Winry was and more. She wasn’t quite confident enough to truly explore like Lucas, preferring to clutch onto her mother’s coveralls and observe passively. Lucas, on the other hand, was happy to talk to the owners of shops and stalls, and run off enough that Winry threatened to make him drink a whole glass of milk with dinner. 

She was contemplating picking up the ingredients for apple pie to surprise Ed when he got back from the train station. Nothing brought either of those boys to the dinner table faster than the promise of pie for dessert. 

“Is there anything I can help you with today, Miss Winry?”

She was pulled out of her contemplation by the voice of the woman who owned the store, and looked up with a smile. 

“Oh, no, thank you Mrs. Jeffers! Just deciding what to make tonight. How is everything? Is Catherine still thinking about school in central?”

“Everything is fine dear, just fine. And yes, she’s starting to lean towards going. Goodness knows we’ll miss her when she heads off! And what about yourself? I hear Edward is due back today.” 

Inwardly, Winry sighed. While the woman had some of the best produce in town, she also happened to be the biggest gossip too. Hopefully she would make it out of this conversation without feeding the local scuttlebutt. “Yes, he should be here by dinnertime tonight, if he’s to be believed.”

“Well, it will be good to have our most famous resident back in town. He certainly brings a bit of livelihood wherever he goes. Where is he coming back from this time?”

Lucas piped up, “Dad was in Xing this month. He was visiting Uncle Al.” 

Mrr. Jeffers smiled at the boy. “Is that so? Well, it’s good that you’ll get to see your dad again, don’t you think?”

Lucas grinned. “Yeah. Dad says there’s nothing like coming back home.” 

The woman laughed, and they continued to chat while she picked out a few apples and a bottle of lemon juice, talking about Ed and Al and the other people in town. She made her way to the register before she addressed Winry again. 

“How often does he go to visit Xing these days? Sometimes it feels like he’s there more than he’s here.”

“Pretty often actually, about once a month. Sometimes it’s for a few weeks, but other times it’s only for a day or two.” She tried to lighten the conversation a bit. “He likes to joke on those trips he spends more time on the train than he does in Xing.”

Unfortunately, Mrs. Jeffers didn’t seem to take a hint, and continued speaking as she rang up and bagged Winry’s groceries. “He’s gone for so long, don’t you ever worry about the things he’ll miss? Children grow up fast, you know.”

For once, Winry was glad of Lucas’ habit of running off, since he was now talking to another customer. But she knew Lily was seeing and hearing everything. She had to choose her words carefully.

“They certainly do. But while we may be his family, so is Al. The two of them need each other, and sometimes that means dropping everything and trekking across the desert just for a short visit. They’re important to each other. I’m not going to discourage that.”

The older woman gave it one last shot. “Oh I know dear, it just seems like your husband forgets that he has a wife and children at home.” 

Winry paid and grabbed her bag of goods before saying with finality, “Edward never forgets what he has here. He’s always thinking of us when he’s away. He knows that I can handle everything while he’s gone, and that the kids are never going to think he’s forgotten about them. He makes sure to call and talk to us every day. And we know that he will always come back to us.”

Mrs. Jeffers seemed startled by her vitriol. “Miss Winry, I didn’t mean to imply —”

“Thank you Mrs. Jeffers, make sure to give Catherine my best. Have a nice day.”

She walked out of the shop, snagging Lucas’ hand on the way out. For once he didn’t complain, perhaps hearing more of the conversation than she thought. She sighed. Yes, sometimes it did feel like Ed was constantly leaving, but it wasn’t like he was gone all the time. Sure, he missed milestones, but sometimes so did she. There were plenty of days where she was buried in automail and he was the one who heard Lucas first say “dada”, or see Lily take her first steps towards him. Besides, she had grown up with the man. When they were younger, she and Granny would go months without hearing a peep from him or Al. Now he was sure to call her every day like clockwork. This was nothing. 

Because she knew that when it came to his brother, he was unwavering in his support. If it came down to her having to sleep in an otherwise empty bed, or his brother having to deal with nightmares and flashbacks and sensory overload by himself, she knew his decision.

There was really no contest.

**Author's Note:**

> feedback is not expected, but appreciated. thanks for reading!


End file.
